My interest in history often leads me into strange events and people. One
of the little sidebars is the story of Vasyl Vyshyvany, the King of the
Ukraine. A memorial has been erected to honour him. A book by Timothy
Snyder titled The Red Prince provides more information than the article
below.
https://euromaidanpress.com/2021/04/30/vasyl-vyshyvany-the-hapsburg-prince-who-chose-ukraine/
In the meantime, one of his family was attempting to become the King of
Poland. Another family member King Karl, the last Habsburg ruler, is now
a saint.
In the years following the First World War, every new country created by
the Treaty of Versailles went to war against its neighbours. Churchill
called these conflicts the War of the Pygmies. In addition it was the time
of the Red-White Civil War in Russia,, the Polish-Soviet War, the
intervention in Russia by the British, Americans and even Canadians, the
first deliberate starvation in the Ukraine, and other forgotten events.
Just the type of historical confusion that I love to read about. While
Germany had lost on the Western Front, it had won on the Eastern Front.
German military did not simply disappear from territories they had won at
Brest-Litovsk and the Allies had little knowledge of the new nations they
had created. Wonderful!
* Ihate to add a footnote, but see
https://www.emperorcharles.org/why-canonize-an-emperor. "Blessed Karl is
the patron saint of world peace. Throughout his short reign as emperor,
Karl strongly advocated for an end to the Great War and for global peace,
much to the chagrin of the military establishment.
